"Putting our fancy new gizmo to work, we fed the text of Bill Gates' Sunday night Consumer Electronics Show keynote into the tag-cloud generator, and added the results to our scrolling timeline of Microsoft keywords. Here's the static view below, showing the most commonly used terms from the speech, and providing an alternative look at what the company was saying during this year's show."

Here is the result:

This is an excellent use of tag clouds! I wrote in our wrap-of Gates' speech last Sunday that Xbox was mentioned a lot - and the tag cloud clearly shows this. I wondered if Vista would be top word/phrase, and sure enough it is about equal with Windows. Other words to stand out include 'media', 'hardware' and 'video' (amongst others). One word that seems to be conspicuously absent is 'live'...

Also note the fairly big 'deliver' :-) 2007 is the year when Microsoft has to put up, or shut up.

• Dash Navigation Dash Express won Best Car Tech - it's a GPS navigation system which includes Yahoo Local search.
• SanDisk Sansa Connect won in the MP3 and portable audio category - it enables "users to hop on to any open Wi-Fi connection to trade and to recommend songs from any distance." It also offers access to streaming Internet radio.

The LG BH100 DVD player, which can play both Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs, won CNET's Best in Show award:

"At CES 2007, LG introduced the first player capable of playing both Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs. We were skeptical that any company could deliver a combination player at the show, but the LG BH100 is the real deal."

It's a shame there weren't more products at CES that demonstrated innovative use of the Internet. I'm beginning to see now why Google was a virtual no-show at CES and even Yahoo had limited presence (apart from the mobile Internet announcements). Microsoft did pretty well though. While some might argue that Apple overshadowed Microsoft with the iPhone and Apple TV announcements at Macworld, don't forget that those are as yet unreleased products. Microsoft is entering 2007 armed with an actual real product line, anchored by Vista.

Today I've been scanning through the latest CES news, to try and find Web Tech highlights. Here's what I found, accompanied by some random Flickr photos...

- Gary Shapiro's and Ed Zander's CES keynote; a keynote from Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, and Ed Zander, CEO of Motorola. Shapiro says that CES is about "New Convergence" this year: convergence of content, services, and products. You can also read Shapiro's opening remarks via this PDF. Highlight:

"Ten years ago when we first talked about convergence, we debated whether the TV or PC would dominate. Today that battle is over with nanotechnology, sensing devices, biometrics, optoelectronics and robotics part of the new convergence. They will combine with existing technologies and allow benefits, just as audio, photo, calendar, contacts, GPS, and even telephone and email connectivity are meshing into products. IPv6 will be a feature in every product allowing seamless Internet connectivity and making the world safer, more connected and more attuned to our preferences and desire for efficiency."

"Yahoo thinks that the "phone will be the new PC." They rightly point out that many people will have their first internet experience via a phone (though I imagine most of that will be in the developing world, and I have trouble seeing their advertising-based revenue model working there)."

- In the Cisco John Chambers keynote, Chambers says that Cisco aims to enable "all forms of communication in IT". Their current focus is networked, the latest in the evolution from analog to digital to networked. The term 'human network' is being used by Cisco - where "your content follows you wherever you go". They also note that collaboration is the next wave of productivity.

Nice soundbite: "By 2010, only 20 homes networked together will have more traffic load between them than the entire internet had in 1997."

Robert Scoble has a video chat with John Chambers up.

- WSJ covered the keynote address of Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger, where a new disney.com website was unveiled. The new site will be "heavy on widgets, video, personalization and a feature called XD, or 'xtreme digital.'" It will also (of course) feature social networking elements. 

Steve Rubel, a former Disney employee, likes the sound of this - but rightly points out the missed opportunity for Disney to release their great store of content onto other parts of the Web, like MySpace or enabling people to do music mashups.

- In Microsoft news from CES, Windows Home Server is getting the most buzz. Here's how ZDNet described it:

"The Windows Home Server is for households that want to share storage among multiple PCs or Xboxes game consoles. It will provide automatic backup, easier storage expansion and connectivity among different devices, including Zune media players"

Ars Technica also has a nice write-up.

Pics: Blackfriers, ekai, yodelanecdotal, El Coyote, theupperroom

Yahoo also made several joint announcements with key operator and device manufacturer partners, related to the two product launches: with Nokia, Opera, Blackberry (RIM), Samsung and 3 Group. In addition, Yahoo says it is working with Sony on a release for "BRAVIA Internet Video Link", one of Sony's new digital home initiatives.

The launch of the beta version of Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0 introduces a new mobile-optimized search UI and product design. The main design feature is the iPod-like "carousel", which allows you to navigate around the various Yahoo! Go widgets.

The Yahoo! Go 2.0 beta is being promoted via a partnership with Motorola's new MOTORAZR maxx V6 and MOTORAZR V3xx devices. Beginning in the first half of 2007, Yahoo! Go 2.0 will be pre-loaded on select new mobile devices from Motorola. Yahoo! Go 2.0 is also available to download onto "more than 70 other mobile devices from major manufacturers worldwide and use it on most wireless networks."

oneSearch

As of now, Yahoo! oneSearch is available only on the Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0 beta. However according to the press release, by the end of January 2007 Yahoo! plans to have oneSearch available across all their Mobile Web and SMS services. As well, Yahoo! oneSearch will roll out in additional country and language versions in the coming months. More details at the Y! Search Blog.

Mobile Internet Search Hots Up

As mentioned at the top of this post, Google is currently leading the charge in the Mobile Internet search space, with various international mobile deals inked (particularly inn Asia, where mobile is very big) and an apparent lead in the behind-the-times US mobile market. So these announcements by Yahoo are in a sense a game of catch-up, at least in public perception. Expect there to be many more announcements and improvements in mobile search before the year is out though, from Yahoo, Google and MSN.

Themes for Internet companies hitting the media market in 2006:

• Device connectivity - from the PC to mobile to television sets to gaming machines to talking refrigerators (OK, that last one has been thankfully absent from CES talk!). It's obvious that connecting all these devices together, seamlessly and in a user-friendly way, is a key goal for Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, eBay/Skype and others.
• Partnerships - we've seen a slew of partnerships announced at CES between Internet companies and a) hardware makers, b) media content companies, and c) other software companies. Microsoft and Palm, Microsoft and MTV, Yahoo and Nokia, Yahoo and Cingular and AT&T, Skype and Philips, Skype and NETGEAR, Google and CBS, Google and Norton, ... the list goes on and we'll see a LOT more of this in 2006. Partnerships are critical in this new Internet-media hybrid world. Yahoo's even talking about partnering with users: "Yahoo is not going to make gadgets. We're here to partner with you." [source: Engadget]
• Internet as the delivery vehicle. I thought this quote from Terry Semel captured the current era of the Web perfectly: "We think the Internet isn't a Web page anymore, it's a vehicle for delivering ... it's about connecting the devices that all of you are manufacturing." [source: Engadget]
• Video, TV, more video: we are seeing a lot of action amongst the big Internet companies in video. Google's new video offerings, a player and a store; Yahoo's promised tv-watching revolution in the shape of Yahoo! Go; Microsoft talking up Xbox 360 as a powerful application for high-definition television. eBay has a trump card too, with Skype video. Broadband has finally come to the party circa 2005/06, such that video delivered over the Web is now a reality that all the bigcos will exploit.
• Finally action in the mobile Web? I put a question mark over that, because there's still a lot of water to go under the product development bridge as far as mobile products are concerned. But Yahoo made some interesting noises with Go, and Microsoft and Google discussed mobile a lot at CES too. But the biggest action in mobile this week came from Skype, with a number of hardware partnerships announced at CES.

These are just the themes for Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and eBay/Skype - I can't wait to see what Apple comes out with at Macworld next week. The rumor of the moment is that Apple will release a new application called iWeb, said to be a Web design application with "easy drag-and-drop capability for a variety of Web-optimized content and media types."

So what do you think - have I covered the main themes of Internet companies at CES? Feel free to add your thoughts below.

The NY Times thinks the theme of this year's CES will be 'Convergence: This Time We Mean It.' But it's obvious Web companies and Internet-connected gadgets will play a bigger part in CES this year, than in previous years. The AP is running a story which illustrates that:

"Yahoo and rival Google Inc. will make their CES debuts with keynote speeches, muscling their way into the high-stakes battle already begun by computing stalwarts, consumer electronics giants and telecommunications companies to push digital media deeper into homes.

With the Web poised to become an increasingly dominant distribution method for movies and television, the Internet giants, along with Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, could very well be the ABC, NBC and CBS networks of the digital age, said Tim Bajarin, an industry analyst with Creative Strategies."

For extensive coverage of CES, I recommend paidcontent.org and CNET's colorful subsite - "CNET editors cover the best of CES". Here at Read/WriteWeb I'll be focusing specifically on the intersection of Web technology and media at CES (my theme in general this year).